I was listening to Steve Deumig on 620 The Sports Animal the other day when a Yankees fan called in. Steve started needling the guy, and it got onto the topic of which team is better, the Yankees or the Rays. Steve’s take: The Rays (of course). He even threw in a choice “the Yankees suck,” “they’re old,” etc.

But how about this hypothetical? If someone gave you 10 grand and said you had to bet it on whether the Yankees or Rays would have a better record at the end of the season, where would you put your money? I’m guessing that Deumig would say the Rays, but he’s an experienced gambler, and I wonder if he had the opportunity to win some free money, whether he’d put it down on the Yankees. Yeah … he would.

This little musing does not come from a Yankee fan, not by any means. Inasmuch as I’m a baseball fan at all, I like the Rays. And I think that, right now, the Rays are indeed a better team than the Yanks. As far as putting money down, though, the pin-stripers from the Big Apple have too much history and experience. I’d have to bet on New York to have a better record at season’s end.

This article appears in May 14-20, 2008.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...